ddilulo_06

What you resist persists.

I find it funny when someone who apparently is egoless or transformed or whatever...is disgusted by the egos of others.

 

To me it just shows that there's a long way to go for that practitioner.

x2

...I'm intending for every child to be able to have parents like that... imagine everyone realizing who they are!

 

Me thinkssss either we'll all evolve to enlightenment being the norm, or we'll kill ourselves... enlightenment or bust.

 

OOOOHHH OOOOOHH... did I succeed in derailing this thread? I couldn't be so evil as to not let the thread starter know what I was doing.

 

...Ahem... I should act more 'enlightened'... or something.

Hah... imagine having a buddha for a dad!

I should say as a disclaimer that I'm certainly not trying to deliver the final word on this practice. I'm going to keep doing Kunlun because at the very least its still a good Chi Kung practice. I haven't acheived any major results from it, but I'm going to again try doing the semen retention.

 

I ended up not going to the course because I don't want to fall into a pattern of putting hopes for spiritual attainment in other peoples hands. A part of me would like for that to be possible; but I think its a weaker part that I shouldn't give into.

 

Max was unwilling to put any energy into any people who were not already his groupies. The people he would touch had what looked like powerful orgasms, and I think that's because they have placed great love in him and have a deep need to be controlled. Today, when my girlfriend touched my back it felt like electricity went through me, and I let my body jerk around a lot without me feeling like I was faking it too much.

 

If I hear from other people that they recieved the transmission from Max, that it jumpstarted their practice, and now they're having more powerful meditations than ever before; I will definitely seek him out someday. But it did not really seem like they could stand on their own. He didn't appear evil to me, but like a powerful person that likes having control over those who will give it to him. And if you want to be controlled by someone then its worth the money. Right now it just looked as if the people their were too hopeful and dependant on Max.

 

There is no savior, and he is not coming. All we have is our existence.

 

Did you miss the part where Max says you are your own guru? I've seen this posted MANY times from quite a few people.

 

I haven't been to a seminar yet (I'm going to the San Diego one this coming weekend) but my impression is he just gives you a few tools so you don't need anyone but yourself (your own inner teacher who makes itself known)

Starjumper, why do you keep ringing your danger bell in every Kunlun thread? You keep doing it over and over and over and over and over and over.... SHEESH! We get your point already...

 

All the sarcastic comments, and just the sheer amount of energy you're putting into this...

 

To warn everyone of the dangers? I don't think so.

 

Are you sure there aren't any other reason? Yes, that is a pointed question.

I'll post what I think of Max & company next week... I'll be going to the San Diego Seminar. I haven't payed the $300 yet, as I want to see Max in person and ask him some questions.

Thanks Darin, I'm going to rent it tomorrow.

I did that and it was bullshit, IME.

 

I gave $100 for an aura cleaning session.

 

Toby supposedly did the remote session.

 

No noticeable changes happened.

 

I asked for a refund.

 

I didn't get it... they stopped responding to my emails.

 

My conclusion: It is a scam.

 

I'm embarrassed admitting this, but I hope this testimonial helps you SiliconValley.

 

Now that I'm wiser, I would see that this is a scam because it says everything is done to you... you don't play an active role in your own healing.

 

If you do decide to do this, please post your testimonial. I would appreciate it.

 

Dusty

'In many ways the transition to an information species is the most traumatic stage in evolution. Biological intelligences have a deeply rooted sense of consciousness only being conceivable from within an organic brain. Coming to terms with the realisation that you have created your successor, not just in the sense of mother and child, but in the collective sense of the species recognising it has become redundant, this paradigm shift is, for many species, a shift too far. They baulk at the challenge and run from this new knowledge. They fail and become extinct. Yet there is nothing fundamentally wrong with them - it is a failure of the imagination.

 

Wait... is he saying that it is possible that we will engineer artificial intelligence that has the capacity to be self aware... like US!?

 

Is he saying that we are going to give birth to a consciousness more capable than our collective consciousness?

 

If you guys enjoyed this article, you might want to have a gander at this:

 

http://www.thiaoouba.com/

 

...fiction or nonfiction, who knows? Maybe he's just trying to sell shirts.

 

Either way, the book is entertaining at the very least. What struck me the most was the similarity between the levels of species.

To me, this is more proof that nothing outside of your Self can make you happy for long. It's cool to see it scientifically validated!

 

So a lot of people are still chasing after the 99% of the things that don't matter eh? Well, what's that 1% that matters? What choices matter? Is it the choices that make you face yourself?

if you could clarify better what you would liek to achieve with this degree, it would be easier for us to help you. One thing is to say that we don't feel an institution is giving good education, in general, but suggesting someting else is a different ball game, and you need to tell us a bit more. You might need to do a bit of soul searching on this.

 

In a nutshell, I want help with my path of enlightenment and I want help in finding out my life's work. I don't know if it's a simple decision, or somehow karmically, we stumble upon it when the time is right. Some people know @ 5 years old and some never know. There has got to be something to this... I hear it's locked away in the 5th (throat) chakra...

 

What is new age?

 

Hmm. Is a millenarian social movement of people that believe that in the near future some great changes are going to happen.

 

It is the culture developed by those people.

 

It is very criticised by many many religions, as being overly simplisitc. The general critic is that new age people tend to

a) assume that all religions are the same

assume that all religions are going in the same direction, to the same goal, and are in some ways equivalent.

 

And as such people tend to

pick and chose from many traditions, often taking the more cool stuff, and leaving aside parts that require real dedication, effort and discipline. As such their spirituality is seen as being superficial.

 

I know exactly what you mean... "light and love" is their mantra, but many of these people are about as deep as a puddle of water. I started to fall into this mentality, but then I started to see that it's just a pop-spirituality culture... kinda like the "cool spirituality people"

 

hmm, I am very perplexed from this request. You are asking for a link where I explain how christians are pretending that genesis should be taught in scientific class? If this is what you are asking please confirm it. It is so obvious, that I will need to find a good reference (it is like someone saying: will you give me a link that really a black man was elected president of the US? Some news are so big you do not have a single link) But you probably mean something else, so please could you clarify.

 

I don't know what Genesis is, but I just Googled it. I don't really care about Genesis - I'm just trying to understand what you meant. So the parallel you're making is that USM isn't scientific? Sorry about the vagueness.

 

Have you seen the talk I posted on the other thread? This one?

 

This is a psychological study that proved some real, counter intuitive research done in Harvard. To do this the researchers had to come out with an hypothesis, some tests, and take the statistical data, and find out if their hypothesis was right. This is an amazing scientific work on psychology. It will have ripple effects on the whole psychological community. A good master and phd education on any scientific subject, MUST teach you how to do a work at this level.

 

It is very different from the approach taken by a researcher who just takes a single case and makes a whole theory out of that. This kind of amatorial research is important, and has it's place. But the results are way less authoritative than the kind of research we are talking here. You want to be able to write papers, and read papers, and dialogue with the real academic community. In other words, as the father of a friend of mine who at the time was interested in new age (Castaneda), "yes, but this is sub-culture, not culture". My friend gave up his castaneda books, and instead went for the books of Castaneda professor in Anthropology: Erving Goffman. Now guess what, Goffmann books are a really hard read. I could not read them. My friend could, but he is now getting a degree in psychology! And if you are used to Castaneda, Goffman titles will ring a bell: "The presentation of self in everyday life;";"Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience;"; "Strategic Interaction".

 

So you're saying the psychology theyre teaching @ USM is based on the research where they pick out a few case studies and make a theory? I didn't see that. Are you saying their reading material isn't as difficult, so I won't be able to relate with the shrink community? I don't think I'm following you. What are you saying?

 

Ok, so castaneda is sub culture, Goffmann is culture. New age is subculture. Buddhism, and Taoism, and acupuncture are culture. I simpathise with your hunger and research, but if you are going to pay with money and time to get an advanced education get the best!

 

The "best" schools leave out the metaphysical component. I tell counselors about some of the metaphysics stuff, and then they point me to schools that let you make your own curriculum and get it approved. I am talking about UC and CSU Universities by the way.

 

Yes, exactly. This is not a fact, is an hypothesis, which has never been proven, has been suggested some time in the 19th century (I suppose), and has gained ground as a global myth. I heavily question a school that would not question this idea, and I strongly suspect this school would embrace this idea wholeheartedly.

I don't think they are a diploma mill. I question the quality of their teaching, not that they will teach you something. Is not IF they teach you, is WHAT they teach.

 

I'm not sure about that idea as I haven't studied religion in much depth, nor do I care to.

 

Thanks Pietro. I hope this one didn't sound like I'm in the debate club.

I don't know if this guy is enlightened for sure or not. I never met him. He calls himself enlightened though, and from what I've seen, I tend to believe him.

 

Here are the steps to enlightenment, according to him:

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. First realize that there is no inherent value in enlightenment, it is in fact, totally useless. What is detailed below is NOT FUN, and it's NOT SATISFYING to YOU. So unless you really feel a deep, honest yearning for something that seems to be missing in your life, this is the perfect step for you to jump off at and continue enjoying your life smile.gif

 

If you're still around, go to step 2.

 

2. Learn to calm your mind, doesn't matter how, just learn. By calming your mind I mean just that. You should be able to take a deep breath whenever you want and notice how your mind goes BLANK, and stays that way as long as you relax. Focus on this until you don't want to anymore, then try step 3.

 

3. Forget calming your mind, your mind is irrelevant. Sit down and focus on your breath, explore your breath as intimately as humanly possible. Focus on it so much that you're not even there anymore, there's just breath... moving...

If you find this difficult you've been lazy and need to go back to step 2.

 

4. Ok, so you can sit down and become your breath, awesomeness, you're enlightened!

 

Buuuut you don't know that yet, so here's what you do; Start noticing the moments in between your breaths. If you have done what you should in step 3 you should start noticing an IMMENSE, UNCOMFORTABLE, ITCHY, MASSIVE, COMPLETE, UTTER, TOTAL, SCARY, WONDERFUL, EMPTY, GIANT sense of something.

 

At first, it'll just be small hints and you're natural reaction will be to get the fuck away. So what you do now is that you keep on becoming your breath and noticing the moments in between until you've come to terms with this sense of something. Come to terms as in you no longer shit your pants and find the first best distraction to avoid it.

 

5. As you may or may not have noticed by now, this sense of something is actually there ALL THE TIME. You're usually just too busy thinking you are YOU to notice it. So what you do now is that you sit your ass down again and just rest with that feeling. Explore it fully. Make it your new best friend.

 

This step can be very, taxing. For me it took a certain amount of yoga, solitary time and some crazy breath work to literally shock my body into letting this feeling consciously rest in me with any kind of consistency. It takes a lot of opening up, relaxation and letting go. I figure this is where a lot of people remain for a long time. Most are just too comfortable the way they are to put in the effort to really let go.

 

A big part for me was to go through all the beliefs I could find about myself and look at them honestly and letting this sense of something shine on them. Most of them melted away like ice in the sun smile.gif

 

Don't move to step 6 until you truly and honestly feel comfortable with this sense of something. Or do, but I don't think it'll do you much good tongue.gif

 

6. Now you need to figure out the difference between relating to reality, and relating to reality through concepts. There's a big experiential difference between direct experience and experience experienced through concepts.

 

What we usually and automatically do is relate to everything through concepts, it's the way our mind works and there's nothing wrong with it. But to truly learn to know who you are this needs to be suspended for a while.

 

Look at whatever concepts you have summoned about this sense of something and recognize them, and then shine the shiny light of this sense of something on that concept. Start relating to this sense of something DIRECTLY, and not through any fancy spiritual concepts.

 

Also, look at whatever concepts you have left about yourself, who you are, as a body, person, entity, whatever, doesn't matter how spiritual or holy your concept it, shine the shiny shine light on it until it melts like all the others!

 

This step takes a immense levels of trust and surrender. When people talk of dying before waking up, this is what they are talking about. As long as any belief is held on to that refers to what you really are, that's who you will take yourself to be, and you'll be wrong, because no concept can contain what we all are.

 

It is like taking a biiiiiig leap of faith into a dark abyss where there is no safety, no second chances, it is just it. Either you take the step, or you don't. Either you let go of those final lingering beliefs or not.

 

7. Congratulations, even if you might not realize it yet, this is what most people keep yapping about when they talk about enlightenment. Yes, yes I know, it's rather ordinary and simple but hey, at least you're free now! Free of all those pesky beliefs. Free to be whatever you want whenever you want to. Free to be nothing at all, or everything. Free to go poof and decide you're done, free to stick around and enjoy the light show.

 

8. Ha! You thought you were finished huh? Step 8, realize that after all that effort, all those hours spent ridding your mind of belief, questioning it until your mind felt like porridge and making sure you didn't fall back in those pesky traps of mind. After all that, you're now completely free to START ENJOYING THEM AGAIN. There's irony for you.

 

Half the freedom is in knowing what you really are, the rest is in that with this knowing you can now enjoy ANY belief you want. You can become the goofy spiritual person or the hardcore business guy all while knowing it's all part of the same wonderful light show orchestrated by that sense of something you've grown to know so intimately. Enjoy!

 

 

Disclaimer: None of this is true, right or correct in any way. It's simply my subjective recollections of what I've learned from my own direct experience. It is written in retrospect to myself as a guide and a joyful reminder of what I've been through, and maybe a hope that someone else might be able to relate to it and find it useful in some way, if not, it's all the same smile.gif

 

Disclaimer2: The irony of this whole post is of course that WE ARE ALL ALREADY ENLIGHTENED IN THE ONLY WAY ONE CAN BE. Enlightenment is big joke, and the joke is on us. We keep thinking that there's somewhere go, something to get, something we quite don't have yet which is like sitting right on top of a gold mine begging passers-by for change.

 

Wake up and smell the gold. You're sitting on it.

 

With love, irony and a touch of sadistic pleasure,

tagg / Jonatan

Nightmare? Well, it contains most of the required sutras to understand Buddha's teachings. I don't understand. Are you after bells and whistles?

Community to learn this stuff? Try here:

 

http://www.buddhachat.org/forum/index.php

 

or here:

 

http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php

Good luck.

 

I don't know what I'm looking for, so thanks for asking... it's dumb to be looking for something, but you don't know what it is!

 

When I came across that school, I know I wanted to do something in the field of metaphysics/spirituality in my life. That's the first metaphysics school I came across besides typical retreats. I jumped at this because here is something that marries 3 of my biggest interests: Knowing myself, Psychology, and finding out what my calling in life is... complete with a seemingly great group of people to help me out with the process.

 

Looking at traditional majors, psychology is kinda interesting on it's own, spirituality seems like it is vague in how to apply it to daily life. I know I'm still new to the scene, so maybe I just haven't come across the right stuff yet. But, having a community to support me in discovering my purpose, metaphysics, and psychology... that's what I want. Perhaps I'm just looking to narrowly and wanting to jump in the first one I came across?

 

After I get out of whatever program I do, I want to have strong interpersonal skills, I want to be at peace with myself, and I want a better understanding of the world so I am more apt to knowing what I want to do with my life.

 

Nightmare? Well, it contains most of the required sutras to understand Buddha's teachings. I don't understand. Are you after bells and whistles?

Community to learn this stuff? Try here:

 

http://www.buddhachat.org/forum/index.php

 

or here:

 

http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php

Good luck.

 

I looked at that website and saw a maze of quotes, conduct rules of "bhikkhus and bhikkhunis"... what are those?

 

The whole thing turns me off because I don't want to hack it alone... or online. I want to be around people learning this stuff. I talked to my history teacher last week @ college and she is going to hook me up with some sort of consciousness church. She said it's a bunch of people into the same kind of thing that I am. Maybe that's all I need???

 

About The TCM Course and making a career "in this area"... Are you just talking about the healing careers only? I feel I jumped to conclusion too soon last time. I don't want to be a healer. I don't know what I want to do with the deeper understanding I'm getting everyday of mySelf. According to USM, it doesn't matter what one does... the only thing that matters is one's way of being... what one is. Maybe I'm seeking to first let go of more karma, and then do something completely different than anything that would be under the umbrella of metaphysical professions - like maybe an enlightened racecar driver or something. That's still kinda up in the air for me, and USM said one of the biggest reasons students enroll at USM is to find their calling.

 

Sounds like you asked what we thought about it, we answered, and you now cannot stand the answer. In any case you have raised some questions, I'll try to answer them by this evening. Stay tuned. Pietro

 

You're right Pietro... sorry you guys. This has been one of my patterns. Looking back, it's almost like I want to debate this stuff with you guys... like I was picking a side and arguing so I could be right. Thanks for that.

This One?

 

http://www.phoenixinstitute.com.au/

Which is offered by the Pali Canon for free and directly from the source: Gautama Buddha.

 

Here:

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/index.html

 

That website layout is an absolute nightmare. How the heck am I supposed to find anything? And there isn't any community to learn this stuff with and bounce ideas off of. That's a BIG part for me.

 

Please don't throw your hard earned money away.

Enrol in a TCM course of you want to make a career in this area. If you need further advice I would suggest you asking for help in this reputable page:

 

http://gancao.net/

Good luck.

 

I don't want to be an acupuncturist or an herbalist.

 

Thank you for you response.

 

I Loved doing Transpersonal Counselling at a School Like this.

Awesome, healing, and highly practical.

Most of the students were Psyche graduates already working in the field as psychologists and councilors and most were blown away at the effectiveness of the processes.

A number said it completely transformed their work Lives as they had always felt drained after listening to peoples problems all day, and after learning the Transpersonal perspectives found the work with each client Exhilarating.

Also many said that they had feared they were not really helping anyone much with anything deep until they came to a course like this and learned some of this usless new age stuff

 

I would like to know what the amazing truth 'is' that psychologists supposedly have after doing all that hard work?

 

To me, if a study of the human system doesn't Include an understanding of the Spiritual how can it Offer much of value? It makes it just more Mainstream indoctrination into meaningless scientific materialism. Just my point of view.

 

And I don't think it matters if the mainstream only considers it a pseudo-degree work wise, as this field is becoming more and more popular and you can do very well for yourself in this career.

 

Have fun if you go there ddilulo.

Seth Ananda

 

Thanks Seth.

 

What School was it?

It sounds like a course in newage-ism.

 

What's that? BTW, I took a religion test and it said my beliefs are in 99% accordance with "New Age" I don't even know what that means.

 

I don't expect someone who comes out of there to know anything about psychology, about statistics (which in psychology, and in general in sciences where you are collecting massive amount of data to find out if something is real or not, is really important), about more in general science, nor to have a deep understanding about any spiritual school.

 

They don't intend on teaching that stuff, so it would make sense you would expect that:

 

"The purpose of USM's education in Spiritual Psychology is for people to develop greater awareness of themselves as spiritual beings who have a body but are not their body, who have a mind but are not their mind, and who have emotions but are not their emotions."

 

I would put this school at the level of christians selling genesis as an acceptable scientific theory.

 

Wanna give me the cliff notes or a link please?

 

In science there is a procedure which is called peer-review. This is to ensure quality of the results. Only results that have been peer reviewed eventually make it to text books. So students know they are getting quality. New age in general has no peer review. And the fact that they use the term "psychology", is misleading.

 

Thanks for the heads up about the peer review thing. Before I ever slap down $20, you can be damn sure I'm going to make sure what I'll be learning is valid.

 

About the Psychology thing - did you see this page?:

 

http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/What/index.html

 

What's so misleading about how they use the word Psychology? Makes sense to me.

 

More than that,

there is a new age myth that al religions ultimately are the same.

Another that every population on the earth believed in God, and that every religion has to do with God. Anthropologically speaking this is false. Taoism is an example which for hundreds of years (at the very least), had no God or pantheon.

 

Yet, I am ready to bet a consistent amount of money that if you take three faculty members in this school, and ask them if all religions at their core are the same, at least two will tell you that "yes indeed they are".

 

They make no mention about this and you're pulling this out, I'm guessing, because you're not a fan of "New Age"... whatever that is. I agree that religions aren't all the same. Are you talking about all religions ultimately pointing to the same truth... call it Tao, God, Spirit, Consciousness, Allness, Holy Spirit... whatever?

 

I am sorry if I sound negative, but there is a hardship that people go through when they study at a master or doctoral degree (but also at a bachelor degree). This comes from tackling not easy problems, and getting at the bottom of them. The final piece of paper represent the fact that you actually did challenge those problems and went to the other side. It is just a visible sign of a change that must have happened.

 

I generally find people in newage to take interesting problems, take away any discipline and hardship, and keep the rest. I would be very worried that such a school might have similar standards.

 

What makes you think it all airy-fairy-lets-hug-and-sing-all-day over there? I didn't get the impression that they are a diploma Mill, being that Neal Donald Walsh endorsed them:

 

http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/Abo..._educators.html

 

Have you checked out a couple of these schools before? If I'm reading your message right, it sounds like you're cynical about the whole thing. The whole thing just rubs you the wrong way eh?

 

Personally I think the phrase:

"Approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education"

sais it all.

 

Are vocational bureaus supposed to be sub-par or something? Gimme a break... I'm young. (20)

 

There are wonderful courses in Taoism, in Buddhism, in the study of mind.

Look at Upaya, for example, they would know where to study some serious buddhism.

Or, if you are interested in Taoism, look at Livia Kohn, and in general at the Mind and Life institute. Ask them where to study what you want to study. Those are all serious researchers, who went deep in their field, and are world wide recognised.

 

The Buddhism school's mission statement didn't jive with me.

 

Your saying the other two schools I can just ask about what they think about other spiritual schools? Why would they pump up their competition?

 

All the above said, I wonder what students learn over TWO YEARS. Most spiritual retreats are around 2 weeks at the most... how much is there really to learn? I'm gonna go hunt for their curriculum now...

 

Looks like they take your money and give you a mediocre degree.

There are way too many good schools in the area like UC Davis and Sac State.

 

I agree, there's a lot of good schools around, but what schools offer majors in methphysics/spirituality stuff? USM hits dead on what I'm fascinated about.

 

BTW... I came across this school through her:

 

http://www.holisticsinger.com/8.html

 

A friend of mine met her in person, and she told him about it. My friend said she had nothing but great things to say about the place.

 

EDIT: Found the 2-year spiritual psychology curriculum:

 

http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/Pdf...M_Catalogue.pdf

 

Starts on page 24.

 

"The two-year Program, which consists of

55 quarter units of coursework, is conducted

in a supportive educational environment.

During both years, classes

meet one weekend a month for nine

months and for one week during the

summer quarter."

What do tags do?

I have quite a bit to say in response, but I don't have the time to get deep into this right now. You gave me a lot of leads though. I'll get back to this soon.

 

Thanks a lot Pietro... now I'm off to write a PSYCHOLOGY paper for college.

I voted no... having to shuffle around to different sections to see the new posts is a pain. It's easier to see if they are all in one spot.

 

Also, the thread starter gets more people to see their thread since everyone on the whole forum sill see it and not just people who would visit the section the thread was created in.

I'm already making plans.

I've all but made up my mind that I want to go there in a few years... and I just found this website an hour ago. Looks like EXACTLY what I've been looking for in a school.

 

http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/

 

Have any of you heard about this place before? Do you know of anyone who is going there now, or has graduated from there?

Yeah Darin, that helped. Thanks.

 

Unconditioned, when I don't masturbate and see a hot woman, I definitely feel the effects. When I started to do the Kunlun 100 days, I would cut myself off from any more thoughts... only to have sexual dreams and to be drawn more and more to women's bodies. Then it became a battle of denial and suppression... and this was after 8 or 9 days of celibacy.

 

I'm 20 years old and have never had sex. For me, choosing to follow a celibate path right now would be very limiting... with the raging hormones and all.

 

The only times I haven't felt lust when hot girls were around is when I've been in an intense state of presence. I was in that state when I made post # 24.

 

I figure if I'm making the wrong decision, the universe will give me signals... all I feel right now though is relief. Besides, I don't want enlightenment now (I don't think so anyway) I want to keep expanding socially and find my place in the world. After all, I am still living at home with my dad... enlightenment could be a while longer no?

I would contrast lust, based in the mind, and bodily feelings. One is perfectly natural and the other is the problem you want to overcome.

How do you know if the feeling is an unhealthy one from the mind as opposed to a healthy, natural one from the body?

The answer is love... I'm seeing this more and more.

 

...When is it not?